1. Related Applications
none
2. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to interlocking game pieces, dice games, puzzles, ball games and the like.
3. Description of Related Art
The following art defines the present state of this field and each disclosure is hereby incorporated herein by reference:
Gilbert, U.S. Pat. No. 1,398,852, describes the construction of toy buildings, with combinations of panels which when placed edge to edge and assembled form the building, said panels being provided with a pair of rectangular recesses at either side of each corner, some of the panels having recesses intermediate the corners, and means consisting of a plurality of U-shaped clamps joined together at their closed ends, for connecting the edges of the panels together at the corners and at intermediate points, the rectangular recesses of adjacent panels cooperating to form a seat for the intermediate portion of the connecting means.
Goldbach, U.S. Pat. No. 1,880,130, describes a puzzle of the knock-down type composed of a plurality of parts, certain of said parts being provided with slots only; certain of said parts being provided with tongues only; certain of said parts being provided with slots and tongues; certain of said parts being provided with slots and a single tongue; certain of said parts being provided with tongues and a single slot and said slots being adapted to receive said tongues to provide an interlocking of said parts to form pre-determined designs.
Bessinger, U.S. Pat. No. 3,120,078, describes a toy construction kit comprising a plurality of substantially flat panel members having various peripheral shapes, each panel being provided with a plurality of apertures therethrough adjacent the peripheral edges thereof, a separate peg extending into each of said apertures, said pegs being co-planer and integral with their respective associated panel members, and a plurality of continuous elastic bands each adapted to be removeably attached to one of said pegs on one of said panel members and extended to be removably attached to a corresponding peg on an adjacent panel member to hold adjacent panels contiguous to each other to form a three dimensional structure in their assembled state.
Schultz, U.S. Pat. No. 3,417,505, describes a toy structural space panel formed with an outer portion lying in a plane, a reinforcing groove formed about the outer portion, said reinforcing groove defining the periphery of an inner portion, said inner portion comprising planar sections, at least two of which lie in intersecting planes perpendicular to that of the outer portion, said two perpendicular sections having opposite edges defining the width thereof and an end terminating at said groove, said perpendicular sections being joins at said edges to said reinforcing grooves.
Konami Corporation, E.P. 1428560, describes a board game played by plural players comprising; a play field having a plurality of polygonal grids extending continuously and used by the plural players, and plural game component sets used by the plural players for their own play, the game component sets comprising: plural dice, plural kinds of pieces respectively having visually identifiable features and belonging to predetermined plural groups and/or predetermined levels, and plural cards corresponding to the plural kinds of pieces and describing at least denominations to identify corresponding pieces, capacity or ability of the corresponding pieces, conditions for wielding or exerting the capacity or ability of the pieces, and the groups and/or the levels; the dice being polyhedrons consisting of n (n is an integer of three or more) polygonal plates which have substantially the same dimensions with the polygonal grids of the play field and are connected in such a manner that unfolding of the dice is possible.
Sasso, U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,453, describes a puzzle in the form of a multi-colored regular solid. Plates corresponding to the adjacent faces of the regular solid are disposed on said faces and divided into a plurality of triangles of different colors, and which triangles have adjacent edges. The plates are coupled in pairs and the pairs are rotatable relative to their respective faces. The object of the puzzle is to rotate the pairs of plates so that none of the adjacent edges of the triangles are of the same color.
Abu-Shumays et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,750, describes two distinct dodecahedron cubic puzzles, one a Rhombic Dodecahedron Puzzle having twelve diamond faces and the other a Regular Dodecahedron Puzzle having twelve pentagon faces. The ideas involved can be readily applied to other puzzles having newer shapes such as the rhombic triacontahedron. The distinguishing features of these puzzles are briefly described. Each of the puzzles is comprised of component pieces which are joined and held together by an appropriate means. The external surfaces of each puzzle are to be assigned a unique combination of colors or pictures or monthly calendars. The mechanism of motion makes it possible to rotate the individual component pieces of a puzzle in groups around lines joining the puzzle center and the puzzle vertices. Various possible rotations (twists and turns) result in mixing up the surface configurations. The object and the challenge is to restore the various surfaces of a puzzle into their original form, or to perform twists and turns that would result in alternate interesting designs.
Boo, U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,787, describes sheet material building components or units in the shape of different regular polygons of equal edge length have strips of hook-and-pile fastening materials permanently secured so as to extend along their side edges. Hook type fastening material is disposed toward one end portion of each side edge and pile type fastening material is disposed toward the other end portion of each side edge. The strips of hook type and pile type fastening materials alternate around the circumference of each unit. Different units can be connected substantially edge-to-edge by simply placing the desired edges in contact to form a wide variety of two-dimensional or three-dimensional arrays or shapes.
Gathman et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,175, describes 12-sided and 20-sided dice which have a suit symbol and a value symbol on each surface representing one of the various playing cards in a standard 52 card playing deck. The 12-sided die will carry 3 different value symbols for each of the 4 suits and, accordingly, will depict 12 different cards, one on each of its surfaces which are identically shaped pentagons. A game is disclosed which employ three or more of such dice, all identical. In another embodiment a 20-sided die is provided which carries 5 values of each of the four suits. In all embodiments, parallel, opposing surfaces will bear the same value symbol and no two surfaces adjoined together along a common edge will bear the same suit symbol. This symmetrical arrangement provides for integrity of change in re- rolling the dice and complete randomness of chance.
Vogelsang, U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,537, describes a game played by rolling a plurality of multi-faced dice and accumulating a total of the numbers shown on the up faces of the dice. One face of each die bears a symbol, and the player loses the points accumulated during his turn if one of the dice displays a symbol as a result of having been rolled, and the player loses all of his points if both of the dice displays the symbols as a result of the roll.
Burk, U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,149, describes a card game in which cards can be readily assembled and disassembled from a wide variety of three dimensional structures. The game includes card holders which enable cards to be assembled into a structure with cards extending along several axes normal to one another and with a plurality of cards extending vertically upward from a support surface.
Grimm et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,318, describes an arcuate structure containing at least sixty six-sided building blocks, where the six-sided building blocks are independently able to provide means for connecting joining them. The outside face of the six-sided block has a substantially rhomboidal shape, and is substantially parallel to the inside face of the six- sided block. The right edges and the left edges have equal lengths and form equal angles with the inside face and outside face. The left and right sides of the six-sided block are congruent with each other, are in the shape of a parallelogram, and contain two recesses and two projections within their borders. The six-sided block contains a top side with a substantially rectangular shape and a recess and disposed within such shape, a left and right side, each of which are congruent with the left and right sides of the six-sided block, and a front and back side, each of which are congruent with each other and with the back side of the six-sided block.
Our prior art search with abstracts described above teaches: symmetrical dice with card indicia; interlocking puzzles; card stacking games; a method for playing a dice game; a constructional kit educational aid and toy; the dodecahedron class of cubic puzzles; a regular solid multi-colored puzzle; a building toy; a puzzle; an educational building setup for rough plumbing; a construction toy comprising panels of sheet connectable by elastic bands; space panels; and a board game with method of play. Thus, the prior art shows, the utilitarian use of a closed plural sided object made up of individual plates (Bessinger, Goldbach, Sasso) and the joining of such plates using opposing C-clamps (Schultz, Van Antwerp, Gilbert, Burk). The prior art also teaches the dodecahedron class of puzzles (Abu-Shumays et al, Vogelsang), in the field of games as well as the use of interlocking piece construction games. However, the prior art fails to teach a hollow ball made up of interlocking resilient plates joined by their edges using C-shaped clamps having dual opposing legs in one embodiment, and three equally spaced legs in an alternate embodiment. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages as described in the following summary.